Nurse
by Marina Lenore
Summary: A chance encounter begins a change in the lives of nurse Kagome and Dr. Sesshomaru. Sess/Kag, AU


"Nurse!"

Kagome turned around only to see their lone yōkai surgeon, Dr. Taishō Sesshōmaru, addressing her. As usual the inordinately talented daiyōkai looked calm and collected, but his tone of voice had been rather harried. "Yes, Dr, Taishō? What may I do for you?"

"You are Higurashi Kagome, correct? Have you any experience assisting on operations? If so, how many and list the most difficult three in order of most to least difficult."

Kagome blinked, somewhat startled, because from the tone of his voice he _knew_ she had assisted in operations before, or at least suspected… Ah, one of the other nurses probably pointed him in her direction. "Fifteen at this hospital sir, thirty five at Municipal Otaru, and forty seven at St. Luke's."

Then she continued, "As for most difficult, that would be successfully removing a gallbladder that was less than an hour from rupturing through _laproscopic surgery_. As-"

"Stop. You'll do."

There was approval in his voice, but that soon changed, "What kind of thrice-damned fool attempts to take a nearly-rupturing gallbladder out through _laproscopy_ , of all things? They must have been either stupid or overconfident in their abilities! The only surgeon with the skill to be able to do that is Dr. Fuhito Shikaku."

Kagome tentatively ventured with a small chuckle, "It _was_ Dr. Fuhito, Dr. Taishō. He was on call for another dire surgery, but he not only did the laproscopic surgery, he also diagnosed the problem – which had been eluding doctors for over ten hours, the poor young woman was in agonising pain from it – and saved that patient's life. She recovered perfectly well."

He chuckled himself, "Well then I was remiss in calling your surgeon a fool. I would not have dared attempt such a thing through laproscopy, myself."

That was saying something, because Dr. Taishō was the best surgeon they had at NTT Medical Centre Tokyo. And since he had begun working here the hospital had risen up to become the third top hospital in all of Japan. Not that Kagome had been there for the climb, but even so, it was quite impressive. "I was terrified; it was only my seventh operation. But apparently Dr. Fuhito saw something in me because I survived intact and it was a success."

They had been walking the entire time after he told her she would do, and Dr. Taishō suddenly changed the topic, "We had a nurse collapse in the OR about ten minutes ago and I have been seeking a stand-in for her. She has diabetes and got so sucked up in the operation that she forgot her morning snack. It was almost a disaster; it happened so suddenly – she had just pulled her hands out and complained about feeling dizzy before she dropped to the ground. Thirty seconds later and the man's intestines would have been all over the floor."

Kagome cringed at the picture that presented, but it didn't gross her out. Working in operating rooms tended to inure a person to gore. Ironically, when she had been a child, she'd been terrified of blood, and decided to become a nurse because even more than her fear, she wanted to help people. It turned out that exposure therapy worked wonders for her.

They arrived at the OR, washed up, and went in.

* * *

Two weeks later Kagome was laughing at the story Sesshōmaru was telling her, before he demanded a return tale. "Okay, my most ridiculous patient… some college student had gotten drunk and then decided it would be a good idea to shove his _live_ _pet_ _gerbil_ up his ass inside of a toilet paper tube."

Sesshōmaru blinked and groaned, "Okay, you win that one. That is by far the stupidest and most absurd thing anyone could experience. Did the gerbil survive?"

"Yes, and one of the nurses took it home since the owner was clearly an unfit pet owner and he actually decided on his own that he wouldn't be anywhere with live animals whilst being drunk."

That got her another incredulous stare and then a sigh, "One wonders what goes on through people's heads… and then you realise you would honestly _much_ rather _just not_ _know_."

She giggled and smiled, sipping at her tea in the café across from the hospital they worked in. This friendship was turning out very nicely indeed.

* * *

"She _what_?"

Sesshōmaru nodded, "Exactly. Every single habit I had to learn in order to work at the hospital was unacceptable to her. As soon as we moved in together she protested my showering in the night before my shift as well as my showering in the morning when I arrived home – I have no idea when she would find me cleaning myself to be acceptable – she tried to replace my toothpaste – three times – continuously discarded the hand sanitiser I kept all over the place, and insisted that I was too far above normal people to cook my own meals. I broke up with her after two weeks of trying to get her to stop trying to change me."

Kagome grimaced. "It's no wonder it took you a week of chatting to agree to come to lunch with me, and then _eight_ _months_ to ask me out."

She was still going to rib him about it though. He chuckled, "Not that it will stop your teasing about me being _shy_. Of all the preposterous things. Although really, I should have realised that since you also work in hospital you wouldn't develop those kinds of outlooks."

The blue eyed young woman shook her head, "No, I am far more pragmatic about things. I prefer to eat at home too by the by. Eating out is for special occasions and ordering in is for when I'm too consumed by guilt or grief to cook."

He reached over the table and laced their fingers together, squeezing gently. "I know those nights."

She smiled softly at him, thinking that maybe once, luck was with her.

* * *

"He wants me to transfer again."

Sesshōmaru blinked at this surprising – and incredibly distressed – comment from Kagome. "Who does?"

She sniffled and he pulled her into his lap, growling comfortingly to her. His inu yōkai mannerisms had, contradictorily, made Kagome noticeably more comfortable around him and she really liked that he wasn't afraid to show that he was yōkai. "D-Doctor Fuhito. I work for hospitals, but mainly for him; you see, he wants me to be his protégé. After that operation he decided I had potential and started sending me to different hospitals to gain more general experience before taking me under his wing. I thought maybe that since he had let me stay at NTT for so long he might have changed his mind, but he still wants me to train under him, and soon. I-I don't want to any more though. At first I was excited, but now… I _love_ being a nurse. I don't _want_ to be a doctor, much less a surgeon. Assisting in operations is one thing but being the main operator is a whole other thing and I have come to realise I wouldn't enjoy it at all."

Then she said softly, "Plus, I don't think I could stand to be away from you for more than the time it takes to visit my family, and even that would be hard."

They had been living together for four months now, and Sesshōmaru was planning on proposing tonight – in fact, he still was intending on doing so. But not until he comforted his lover, beloved, and other half of his soul. "Dr. Fuhito can be a very understanding person despite his outwards demeanour. I trained under him for two years after I graduated from medical school, and he was the doctor most likely to be called a "bleeding heart" at that hospital. Let me guess; he did that dangerous gallbladder surgery _laproscopically_ because the patient had no insurance and he didn't want her to have to pay for being in hospital for as long as it would take to recover from abdominal surgery."

Kagome blinked, tears falling from her beautiful cerulean eyes as she nodded slowly, "T-that's exactly so."

He smiled reassuringly and pulled out her cell phone from where she kept it in her pocket, "Call him, and explain. He will understand, I promise, precious."

She did so, and as promised, the good doctor did understand, and while he jokingly lamented about losing his protégé, he also told her that she wasn't to worry about it, because he had suspected this might happen and had another candidate in mind. When she asked if she knew who it was, the older doctor slyly said, "If I am right and you just finished crying, it would be the daiyōkai whose lap you are seated in, Kagome-chan. You and Taishō Sesshōmaru have been dating for almost a year now, haven't you?"

She blinked and burst into giggles at that, collapsing against Sesshōmaru's chest as he plucked her phone from her hands and placed it against his ear, "I accept, but only if you transfer both of us. Right. Understood, sir. I look forward to your instruction once more. Yes. Goodbye then, Dr. Fuhito."

She smiled vividly up at him, and as he leaned down to kiss her, he placed her phone back into her jacket pocket, pulled the ring box out from his own jacket pocket, and murmured against her lips, "Would you do me the honour of becoming my mate, Kagome?"

She gasped and pulled away, only to see an open ring box with an elegant and simple white gold engagement ring sitting in it, a small diamond in the centre surrounded by equally small sapphires and topazes. "Oh! Oh, _Sesshōmaru_ , of course I will!"

He smiled and kissed her again as he slid the ring onto her finger. They were heading out to dinner when this happened, but the reservation wasn't for another hour yet.

He'd _told_ her it was a special occasion.

* * *

 **A/N:** Kagome's gallbladder story _is_ in fact possible – I should know as I took it from my own experience. If the visiting surgeon hadn't diagnosed me and then operated on me, I would have died a _very_ painful death.


End file.
